'King Lear' by William Shakespeare

Critical Edition, with full sources, notes and commentary, of William Shakespeare, King Lear.

The Press in a world of technological change, 1970–2000

Oxford University Press’s response to technological change in printing and publishing processes in this period can be considered in three phases: an initial period when the computerization of typesetting was seen as offering both cost savings and the ability to produce new editions of existing works more quickly; an intermediate phase when the emergence of standards in desktop computing allowed experiments with the sale of software as well as packaged electronic publications; and a third phase when the availability of the world wide web as a means of distribution allowed OUP to return to publishing in its traditional areas of strength albeit in new formats. Each of these phases demonstrates a tension between a desire to develop centralized systems and expertise, and a recognition that dynamic publishing depends on distributed decision-making and innovation. Alongside these developments in production and distribution lay developments in computer support for managerial and collaborative publishing processes, often involving the same personnel and sometimes the same equipment.

Memory effects in liquid crystal elastomers

Free-standing monodomain liquid crystal elastomer samples are shown to have a complete memory of the orientational configuration at the time of cross-linking. This memory is demonstrated through samples in which the parent polymer system is first aligned in a magnetic field prior to cross-linking. These films show reversible nematic-isotropic phase transitions and x-ray scattering patterns characteristic of nematic phases. The liquid crystal elastomer films exhibit a remarkable memory effect, in that the sample may be held at temperatures well above the nematic-isotropic transition for extended periods ( > 2 weeks), but on cooling into the liquid crystal phase region, both the original director alignment and the degree of preferred orientation are recovered. It is demonstrated that these novel memory effects are equilibrium in nature. The origins of this phenomena in terms of coupling between the mesogenic side-chains and the polymer network are discussed.

The effect of the spacer length on the nature of coupling in side chain liquid crystals polymers and elastomers

Side chain liquid crystal polymers and elastomers exhibit a rich phase behaviour which arises from the antagonistic influences of the entropically disordered polymer chain configuration and the long range orientational ordering of the mesogenic units. This competition arises since the natural macroscopic phase separation is inhibited by the inherent chemical connectivity of the system. At the heart of this connectivity is the spacer link and we consider here its influence on the phase behaviour. In particular we consider a series of elastomers in which the number of alkyl units in the spacer is systematically varied from 2 to 6. The lengthening of the coupling spacer is accompanied by an alternation of the sign of coupling between the polymer chain and the mesogenic unit. These results demonstrate the dominating influence of the so-called hinge effect in determining the phase behaviour. In addition to the alternation of the sign there is some decrease in the magnitude of the coupling with increasing spacer length.

A single director switching mode for monodomain liquid crystal elastomer

We report rotation of a single director in a nematic monodomain, acrylate based side-chain elastomer which was subjected to mechanical fields applied at angles in the range to the director, , present at the time of network formation. Time and spatially resolving wide angle X-ray scattering, together with polarised light microscopy measurements revealed a pronounced, almost discontinuous switching mode at a critical extension as the strain was applied at angles approaching to , whereas a more continuous rotation was seen when the strain was applied at more acute angles. This director reorientation was more or less uniform across the complete sample and was accompanied by a modest decrease in orientation parameter . At strains sufficient to induce switching there was some continuous distribution of director orientations with fluctuations of 10 although there was no evidence for any localised director inhomogenities such as domain formation. The observed deformation behaviour of these acrylate-based nematic monodomains was in accord with the predictions of a theory developed by Bladon et al., in that the complete set of data could be accounted for through a single parameter describing the chain anisotropy. The experimentally deduced chain anisotropy parameter was in broad agreement with that obtained from small-angle neutron scattering procedures, but was somewhat greater than that obtained by spontaneous shape changes at the nematic-isotropic transition.

La Suite Vulgate, 'Suite historique' du Merlin? Histoire et roman dans un récit arthurien en prose

La Suite Vulgate, une œuvre d'orientation à la fois romanesque et historique, interroge la pertinence des constructions et catégories génériques dans la littérature médiévale. Afin de mieux cerner le statut de cette œuvre hybride, cet article explore les questions de l'écriture de l'histoire, la terminologie à travers laquelle l'œuvre s'auto-désigne, son rapport à la temporalité, et le mode de représentation de l'histoire que propose le texte.

Morality and the good life

Being moral sometimes handicaps decent people in their pursuit of worthwhile goals. This is especially likely to happen when those with power in society have badly mistaken ideas about what morality requires. A good person might not last long in a bad society.

CUP Intermediate Greek-English Lexicon

Document design and typeface design: A typographic specification for a new Intermediate Greek-English Lexicon by CUP, accompanied by typefaces modified for the specific typographic requirements of the text. The Lexicon is a substantial (over 1400 pages) publication for HE students and academics intended to complement Liddell-Scott (the standard reference for classical Greek since the 1850s), and has been in preparation for over a decade. The typographic appearance of such works has changed very little since the original editions, largely to the lack of suitable typefaces: early digital proofs of the Lexicon utilised directly digitised versions of historical typefaces, making the entries difficult to navigate, and the document uneven in typographic texture. Close collaboration with the editors of the Lexicon, and discussion of the historical precedents for such documents informed the design at all typographic levels to achieve a highly reader-friendly results that propose a model for this kind of typography. Uniquely for a work of this kind, typeface design decisions were integrated into the wider document design specification. A rethinking of the complex typography for Greek and English based on historical editions as well as equivalent bilingual reference works at this level (from OUP, CUP, Brill, Mondadori, and other publishers) led a redefinition of multi-script typeface pairing for the specific context, taking into account recent developments in typeface design. Specifically, the relevant weighting of elements within each entry were redefined, as well as the typographic texture of type styles across the two scripts. In details, Greek typefaces were modified to emphasise clarity and readability, particularly of diacritics, at very small sizes. The relative weights of typefaces typeset side-by-side were fine-tuned so that the visual hierarchy of the entires was unambiguous despite the dense typesetting.

Penser la strategie de l'Antiquité à nos jours

Déjà utilisé dans un sens large à Byzance au VIe, le terme « stratégie » ne tut adopté en Europe occidentale qu’au XVIIIe siècle. Dans cet ouvrage, l’auteur définit la stratégie est une voie globale pour parvenir à des fins politiques, utilisant la menace ou l’usage effectif de la force et prenant en compte les moyens disponibles, mais aussi les valeurs et les objectifs des adversaires, dans une dialectique des volontés des adversaires. Ces variables sont au centre de cet ouvrage. Depuis Aristote et la notion de guerre juste développée par Augustin d’Hippone et Thomas d’Aquin, jusqu’au « paradigme napoléonien », qui a dominé la stratégie et la guerre à partir de la fin de l’époque moderne, et le concept de la guerre totale de Ludendorff, Béatrice Heuser expose l’évolution d’un discours sur la guerre et sa justification (ou non) comme recherche de la paix. Si, après Napoléon et Clausewitz, la victoire militaire apparaît comme le but ultime de tout conflit, à partir de la Première Guerre mondiale, et surtout de l’utilisation de la bombe atomique en 1945, les stratégistes redécouvrent l’importance de penser la paix après la guerre, le « paradigme de la paix ». Les développements de la stratégie navale, puis des stratégies aériennes et nucléaires, ainsi que les concepts de petite guerre ou de guérilla, qui dominent l’actualité, prennent leur place dans cette histoire de la stratégie, ou « comment les hommes ont pensé la guerre .

Microbiological insights into respiratory infections and the opportunities for inhaled therapy

Respiratory infections represent the fourth most common cause of all deaths across age groups and countries. Treating these infections appropriately is a clear clinical priority and here we outline the types of therapy that are in current use for some of these infections. It is important that treatments are further improved and the potential of inhaled delivery to fulfil this need is considered. We describe novel methodologies that are being applied for the identification and enumeration of microorganisms in the respiratory tract, and propose that ways of improving therapy may arise from understanding better the etiology of respiratory infection and the impact of inhaled drug therapies. The potential for translational benefits for patients are also discussed.